


Aquaphobia

by ivy_thalassa



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Nessian - Freeform, Panic Attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:48:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27135481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivy_thalassa/pseuds/ivy_thalassa
Summary: A day at the pool with her sisters.Seems harmless enough, right?Nevermind the fact that she’s afraid of deep water...
Relationships: Nesta Archeron/Cassian
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Aquaphobia

“Oh come on Nesta! You never want to do anything with us!”

It was those words from her sister that had convinced Nesta to join them on this ‘fun summer outing’.

Feyre and her boyfriend, Rhysand, were laughing and competing to see who could dive to the bottom of the pool to retrieve the large silicone rings first. Elain was playing mini water polo with Morrigan, Azriel and Amren. Cassian was cannonballing into the pool with Varian. 

Where was Nesta in all this water- related fun? Well, she was sitting safely on the sidelines. 

The day was supposed to involve ice cream, volleyball and tanning, until it had started drizzling and someone had suggested the indoor pool. 

“Nes! Come join my team!” Elain called out to her but Nesta merely smiled and shook her head, remaining in her lounge chair. 

A few minutes later the water polo game seemed to end, and the group split up: Amren and Varian started doing tricks like underwater handstands and flips, Elain and Az flitted on their backs and talked to each other, and Mor went to go join Feyre and Rhysand in their diving games. Cassian wandered over to her chair. 

“Hey, you sure you don’t want to get in the water? It sure feels nice on a hot day like this,” he proposed but Nesta only shook her head.

She wasn’t trying to be difficult. She was just afraid of deep water. 

She enjoyed going to the beach, feeling the waves crash against her legs, even wading into the water until her waist.

But she couldn’t stand still water. 

Not since she was 12 years old. 

Cassian shrugged on a towel and sat on the lounge chair next to her. “What’re you reading?”

Thankfully, Nesta, the over prepared book lover, had packed her current read just in case. 

“It’s a YA novel where this assassin who was caught as a prisoner is supposed to work for the King in exchange for her freedom,” Nesta explained, sparing him a quick glance before returning to her book.

“Would you recommend it?”

“You read?” She smirked, raising an eyebrow.

Cassian chuckled. “Occasionally.”

“It is really good, but I have no idea how it’ll turn out. It’s the first of a series,” she replied. 

She and Cassian couldn’t be called friends exactly, but they were friend- _ly_ with each other. He understood her sense of humor and appreciated her witty retorts unlike most people who seemed to find them cutting.

“What would you recommend, then?”

There was nothing like asking for a book rec that set a bookworm off. Nesta quickly pulled out her phone and launched into a description of her two favorite series.

Time passed faster, after that. 

Thirty minutes —or had it been an hour? — later, Feyre announced that she was going to buy some popsicles, and Rhysand rushed to join her. Amren and Morrigan decided that they, too, were tired of being in the pool and decided to go towel off and change in the locker rooms. Azriel, Elain and Varian followed suit. Deciding to also go and retrieve her bag, which she’d left in the changing room, Nesta got up a few moments after her companions’ figures had disappeared. Cassian walked a few paces ahead of her. 

Wanting to catch up and get away from the pool as soon as possible, she increased her pace and therefore didn’t see the glistening floor in front of her. Her flip flops, while comfortable and fashionable, provided no support as she slipped and fell — into the pool.

It was as if she’d slipped through a time portal. Suddenly, she was 12 again, shaking her mom’s limp body in the hot tub. The bottle of pills knocked over on the side of the tub, the hair floating around her mom’s face like a halo, the blue water and her pale white skin. Nesta didn’t want to believe it; even though she was old enough to understand, she didn’t want to understand. She screamed for her father and for god and for someone —anyone— to help. She felt like she was the one drowning, even though she was tall enough to stand up in the water. No, surely there was no other explanation for this feeling — her lungs and heart and soul were getting crushed and filled with water, with tears, with untamable sadness… 

She wanted someone to save her, to rescue her from drowning in this ocean of inescapable pain, to wake her up and tell her it was all a bad dream. She screamed for help but she also wondered if perhaps the only way to leave this nightmare was to sink to the bottom. She felt so heavy… 

“Nesta!” 

Someone was shaking her shoulders, pulling her away from her mother’s body. 

“Nesta!”

After that it was all a blur — the phone ringing as her father called the ambulance, the sirens arriving and leaving, the continuous long beep on the heart rate monitor even after attempted CPR. 

“Nesta!” 

Water, water, water. It seemed a cruel joke of existence that water was death — both in scarcity and in excess. 

And then someone was carrying her. She could feel their strong heartbeat, her ear against their chest. An arm under her back, another under her knees. 

“Can you hear me?” A voice rumbled through the chest. She nodded slightly. “Nesta, can you take a deep breath for me?” 

She shook her head. She didn’t want to feel the water in her lungs ever again. 

“Do you know where you are?” 

She shook her head no.

“We’re at the swimming pool.” 

She shook her head no. Why would they be at the pool when mom had just died? She shivered and clutched the strong shoulders of whoever was holding her. 

“Umm, do you know who I am?” 

She shook her head no again.

“I’m Cassian.”

Cassian? Cassian… Feyre’s clingy boyfriend’s friend.

She must have said that out loud, because the chest rumbled with laughter. 

“Yeah, that’s the one. Rhysand is clingy.”

Nesta blinked and took in her surroundings. It was still blurred slightly, but she seemed to be on the poolside in an indoor pool. Her memories returned slowly along with her vision as she forced herself to breathe slowly and deeply. 

After a while — her already weak grasp on time had slipped away due to her panic — she calmed down enough to understand what had occurred. She looked up at Cassian’s still concerned face. His long black hair, pulled back in a ponytail, was wet, no doubt due to his impromptu rescue of her. 

“Thank you.”

“Please don’t.”

“What?”

“You don’t need to thank me,” he repeated.

“But you helped me.” Nesta furrowed her brow slightly.

“It’s what anyone would have done.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not. Thank you.”

“Well, an-“

“Oh my god!” A shrill voice echoes in the pool, cutting through their conversation. “Look at them!”

“Omg,” this one definitely Feyre’s voice. “Cassian is carrying Nesta!”

“What’s going on?” A softer voice, probably Elain, asked. 

“Look!” Urg. Feyre’s nosy boyfriend. 

“We’re not animals, you know,” Cassian said, raising an eyebrow.

“Why are you carrying her?” Rhysand countered. 

Nesta blinked at them. She then raised her head slightly and whispered to Cassian, “You can let me down now.”

Cassian immediately did so and then rubbed the back of his neck.

They all left the pool, as the group continued to hound Nesta and Cassian with questions.

Finally Nesta said flippantly, “You really want to know?”

They all shut up instantly and gazed at her with wide eyes.

She smirked. “We were just practicing for when he’ll carry me over the threshold.”

She winked at him. 

His blush was visible even with his honey skin, and she enjoyed it the whole ride home. 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment :)  
> My tumblr is @sayosdreams if you want to come say hi or request a fic  
> Thanks for reading!


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